7 Dec, 2022
China has called on Japan to beware of the “zero-sum game trap”
and not join any bloc confrontations targeting Beijing, but rather work
together to tackle global challenges. Addressing an event to mark half a
century since the normalisation of ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang
Yi said: “China and Japan should treat each other with sincerity and
strive to live together peacefully”, rather than provoke each other’s
core interests, including “heavily sensitive issues involving history
and Taiwan”.
“The differences that exist between the two sides
should be properly dealt with in accordance with the existing consensus,
and more new consensus should be constantly sought,” Wang said in his
virtual address to the event in Tokyo. This year marks the 50th
anniversary of a joint communique normalising diplomatic ties between
the Asian neighbours, with the 45th year of the China-Japan Treaty of
Peace and Friendship coming up in 2023.
This is an
opportunity “to push China-Japan relations forward in the right
direction in a sustained and stable manner”, Wang said. China-Japan
relations have long been strained by their wartime history and
territorial disputes in the East China Sea. The joint communique of
September 1972, which pledged “perpetual peace and friendship”, saw
Tokyo sever ties with self-governed Taiwan to recognise Beijing as the
“sole legal government” of China.
But Japan has in recent years
shown a tendency to lean more towards the United States – a key ally and
fellow Group of 7 member – against what is seen as China’s growing
military assertiveness in the region. Tokyo has also drawn closer to
Taiwan in the US-China tussle over cross-strait issues. Japanese Prime
Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday announced plans to increase military
spending by 50 per cent within the next five years, with Defence
Minister Yasukazu Hamada citing the need to “firmly secure the
necessities to pursue substantial reinforcement”.
Beijing
called the boost “highly dangerous”, warning it was certain to “put
Asian neighbours and the international community on high alert about
Japan’s commitment to an exclusively defensive policy and to peaceful
development”. Wang in his speech also urged Japan to promote economic
and trade cooperation, which is “essentially mutually beneficial” for
both countries, and implement the principle of “not posing threats to
each other” in policies and actions.
Marking 77 years since end of WWII, Japanese leader says nation will never again wage war
Wang’s
comments come weeks after the first in-person meeting between Kishida
and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which took place on the sidelines of
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Thailand last
month. At the meeting, Xi emphasised that as close neighbours and
important countries in Asia and the world, China and Japan shared many
common interests and ample cooperation potential.
The importance of bilateral relations would not change, he said.
Kishida
said they had agreed to boost communications on security matters, but
“serious concerns” still existed over Chinese military activities around
disputed territory in the East China Sea. The dispute is centred on a
group of uninhabited islands claimed by Beijing as the Diaoyus, which
Tokyo controls and calls the Senkaku.
Sino-Japanese ties have
been tested in recent months following a visit to Taiwan by US House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August.Beijing responded to her visit by
launching unprecedented live-fire drills around Taiwan. Japan said five
of the ballistic missiles fired by the Chinese military fell into waters
designated as its exclusive economic zone and lodged a diplomatic
protest with Beijing. But China rejected the complaint, saying the two sides had not agreed on EEZ limits.
Days
after Pelosi’s visit, China also cancelled a meeting between Foreign
Minister Wang and his Japanese counterpart, over a G7 statement on the
Taiwan Strait urging Beijing to resolve tensions peacefully. Japanese
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is expected to visit China after Xi
and Kishida pledged to build up the bilateral relationship when they met
on the Apec sidelines in Bangkok on November 17.